M'kay

6.5 miles in 46:06, 7:05/mi, HR 153.

Sunny and warm (64F); beautiful day for a run.  This wound up being a progression run...found myself running at about marathon effort on the return trip without meaning to do so.

Adrenaline 8 (Yellow)	556.68 miles
Adrenaline 8 (Blue)	343.43 349.93 miles
Asics 2130 (Blue)	156.70 miles
NB 903	123.53 miles

8 miles in 57:42, 7:12/mi, HR 154.

Sunny and much warmer on the road than the 62F in the shade.  Back a bit sore from yesterday afternoon's chainsawing and stump burning activities.  Good pace without too much effort.  Grass drills afterwards.

4 miles in 29:17, 7:19/mi, HR 150.

Sunny and warm (73F) but with more shade this time.  One of those runs where I should've held back more than I did.  Legs felt tired but just wanted to go.

Adrenaline 8 (Yellow)	556.68 568.68 miles
Adrenaline 8 (Blue)	349.93 miles
Asics 2130 (Blue)	156.70 miles
NB 903	123.53 miles

Fartlek Run:  11.19 mi, 1:24:00, 7:30/mi, HR 154.  30 minute warmup, 3.91 mi, 7:40/mi, HR 147.  Fartleks: 12 x 1 min on, 1 min off.  30 minute cooldown, 4.09 mi, 7:19/mi, HR 151.

Repeat	Distance	Pace	Avg HR	Max HR	Terrain
1	.19	5:22/mi	168	174	up
2	.19	5:15/mi	169	176	rolling
3	.20	5:06/mi	166	176	rolling
4	.19	5:23/mi	167	177	rolling
5	.19	5:19/mi	166	176	rolling
6	.20	4:55/mi	165	177	down
7	.19	5:18/mi	166	176	up
8	.19	5:11/mi	167	176	rolling
9	.19	5:19/mi	165	176	rolling
10	.18	5:29/mi	164	176	rolling
11	.19	5:18/mi	166	176	rolling
12	.18	5:15/mi	165	175	down

Overcast and pleasant (63F).  Repeats 7-12 were essentially carbon copies of repeats 1-6 terrain-wise.  Average pace for the repeats was 5:15.8/mi.  Last iteration of a similar workout I did 20 repeats averaging a 5:28/mi pace (slight overall uphill), so this is probably a bit better.  Like last time, I likely ran these a bit aggressively again...the last couple I wound up in 1-1 breathing territory just trying to survive.  Nevertheless, a good solid workout.

Wore my lightweight trainers, which I love running in....they feel great and I feel fast and strong running in them.  Unfortunately, on the return trip, I started feeling that familiar burning sensation on the outside/underneath of my foot, back from the 5th metatarsal, and I still don't know why.  It's not just these shoes....it happened (albeit after more miles) in my Asics 2130s too.  I'd really hate to have to return to wearing orthotics all the time but I need to figure this out....somehow.

4 miles in 30:39, 7:40/mi, HR 147.

Crawled thru this run, wiped out by the repeats.

Adrenaline 8 (Yellow)	568.68 miles
Adrenaline 8 (Blue)	349.93 miles
Asics 2130 (Blue)	156.70 miles
NB 903	123.53 138.72 miles

9 miles in 1:06:50, 7:25/mi, HR 153.  

Partly cloudy, warm (70F) and humid.  Much harder than it looked.  Legs zapped from yesterday, confirming I ran the repeats too hard.  No pace aside from stationary felt easy, but slower ones felt worse so I went with it.  The outbound climb was the worst....the return trip not quite as bad but I was huffing and puffing where I normally don't.  Oh well.

After examining the yellow Adrenalines 8s, I retired them.....the outsole was completely gone in over 1/2 of the toe area....neither of my 8s are wearing nearly as well as the 7s did for some reason.

Adrenaline 8 (Blue)	349.93 358.93 miles
Asics 2130 (Blue)	156.70 miles
NB 903	138.72 miles

10 x Yasso 800 Workout.  16.57 miles in 1:59:12, 7:11/mi, HR 153.  30 minute warmup, 4.02 mi, 7:28/mi, HR 140.  10 x 800m repeats, w/ ~2:55 rest.  30 minute cooldown, 3.89 mi, 7:43/mi, HR 151.

Repeat	Time	Avg HR	Max HR
1	2:51	162	171
2	2:54	166	175
3	2:56	167	177
4	2:52	169	177
5	2:52	168	177
6	2:55	170	179
7	2:51	169	178
8	2:54	170	176
9	2:55	169	177
10	2:54	169	177

Despite the dire weather predictions, just cloudy, fairly warm (65F), and a tad humid with no real wind (nor breeze even for the first 5 or so, which made things uncomfortable).   Again, my goal was to keep the repeats at 2:55 or under and to stay consistent.  Missed the first goal, but not by much....the one 2:56 repeat was actually 2:55.66 and was the one repeat where I had to run outside of a kid stumbling around on the inside lane of the track.  I guess part of our local HS gym class is for students to walk at their own pace around the track....once.  Wow.  Average pace for all the repeats was 2:53.5, so all were within a 2.5 second tolerance....pretty consistent.  No real fade at the end, so success on the consistency front.  The first felt easy, the second not too bad, and 3-10 were hard.  Used the mental tricks (i.e. this is my last one....promise!) for the final 3 or so.  More good news....no problems wearing the NB903 trainers....no burning on the left foot like last time.  Another solid workout in the bank (and the last set of 800s before the marathon....phew!).

4 miles in 30:39, 7:40/mi, HR 147.

Stiff from the eariler workout, with some left adductor soreness.  Took a half-mile to get past a 9 min pace.  Took until 2 miles to dip under 8.  Luckily, I finally loosened up and felt much better on the way back.  These runs make you wonder why you bother when you start and answer the question by the time you finish.

Adrenaline 8 (Blue)	358.93 miles
Asics 2130 (Blue)	156.70 miles
NB 903	138.72 159.29 miles

6.5 miles in 48:02, 7:23/mi, HR 146.

Drizzly and cool (58F).  Legs dead from yesterday's workout.  Left hip flexor a bit sore but got better and loosened up into the run. 

Adrenaline 8 (Blue)	358.93 365.43 miles
Asics 2130 (Blue)	156.70 miles
NB 903	159.29 miles

20 miles in 2:23:51, 7:11/mi, HR 152.

Today was a 20 mile Fast Finish Long Run, with 12 miles easy and increasing speed for the last 8 aiming to average at or above my marathon pace (6:45/mi).  For starters, just didn't feel like running today, much less a 20 miler.  Despite the good sleep, I was still a bit tired and my legs felt beat up.  Conditions were cool (55F) with some intermittent rain and winds.  I finally drug myself out the door at noon (after the Penn State football game) and got to it.  The first 12 miles felt harder than they should've, but after about 6 I stopped myself (mentally) from attempting to justify pushing the run off until tomorrow and things got a bit better.  Route was twice up and down Scott Turner, so about 600' elevation climb and return the first trip, and 500' the second.  Took GUs before starting and at 4.7, 12, and 17.3 with water points every 2.7-4 miles. 

Last 8 were pretty tough.  First 4 of those were uphill so I tried to hold back a bit and aimed to keep the pace under 30 seconds off my predicted MP.  First four uphill splits were 7:03, 7:04, 7:17, 7:21, with the effort (and grade) increasing as I went.  On the downhill return, I aimed to keep it at 30 seconds faster than my predicted MP (PMP) for the first two and to gradually speed up to as fast as possible for the last two.  Last 4 were 6:13, 6:18, 6:13, 6:08, so a bit slow on the second and not much of a speedup on the last two.  By the final two miles, the rain was really coming down and the cold was getting into my legs and I just wanted to quit, but I managed to toughen up mentally to push a bit harder as the grade flattened out.  So last 8 miles I averaged ~6:42/mi, better than my PMP and even better than my goal MP.  I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out, considering I wasn't feeling especially rested and I still managed to finish strong.  One more next weekend, then the peaking phase begins with some reduced mileage and a touch more intensity.

Adrenaline 8 (Blue)	365.43 miles
Asics 2130 (Blue)	156.70 176.70 miles
NB 903	159.29 miles